The Importance of Primary survey adjuncts

I’ve just returned from teaching on an EMST course at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. I think I enjoyed teaching on it more than any of the others I’ve done – plenty off laughs all round.

I was reminded of a funny story from a couple of years ago, in a land far, far away where a patient in his mid twenties presented to a district general hospital I was working at, complaining of having lost his methadone 2 days previously in a car crash. He was seen by just about the most junior doctor in the department who had recently completed the UK equivalent ATLS course and heard the words ‘car crash’ louder than anything else the patient said and felt the patient therefore obviously needed a full ‘trauma series’ of X-rays.

The results of the Pelvic Xray are shown below – good news all round for the patient – No bony injuries from his ‘trauma’ and we found his Methadone!

About Peter Allely

Trained in Ireland and Australia now living in Perth and working as an Emergency Physician. Main work related interests are Trauma, Cardiology, Simulation training and Protocol development...Real interests are work avoidance, football, Arthouse films and satire + Peter Allely | Twittter